Royesland [Full]

[TrashRabbit]

Despite Nicola’s promises that they’d meet back at the Silver Prawn for dinner, the rest of the party was noticeably absent. Which was concerning, but Finn was also not about to complain about the quiet.

Vidya paid for two plates of a trout, a stein of beer and some onion soup with a handful of gold coins she pulled out of her pocket. She crossed the tavern with their meal still wearing her wellies- which had formerly been magicked pink but had now over the course of the day transmuted to purple. She plopped his plate down in front of him and then plopped herself down at well.

“Listen, don’t look at the fish like that. You like fish. I’m a cat now. Fish sounded good. Don’t mope,” She scolds him.

Finn pointed his fork at her in as threatening a way as a one armed man could.

“Okay I get it. It’s not catfish. And its beer fried. Country boys make do okay? Eat up,” She said pointing at the nice fish dinner again.

Finn sighed loudly and put his hand to his head, because that was. Not the point. And he never wanted to hear her say “country boys make do” at him ever again.

Vidya was however a fairy and oblivious to his deeper working as she watched him from the other side of her tall glass of beer. She was feeling very pleased with herself and it would take some doing to move her from that emotional anchor.

Finn sighed again and moved food around his plate. It was not that he didn’t like trout. But he had several questions. The first of which was why she was a cat now, and what that had to do with their dinner.

It was then that Tuesday entered the silver prawn, barefoot, which wasn’t unusual, and with a black eye threatening to take up most of his face which was unusual. The right sleeve of his sweater was gone and he was dripping wet. He looked around the tavern for Molly and not see her deflated even more which didn’t seem possible as he had entered.
Finn leaned across the table to nudge Vidya when Tuesday entered, because get a load of that guy.

“Oh shit,” Vidya said and burst out laughing. It wasn’t every day that one saw the neighboring faerie lord looking like a drownt rat at an arbies.

Finn leaned back and rested his chin on his hand and looked at Tuesday with a smirk.

“Oh fuck off, Vidya,” Tuesday said from across the tavern.

“I will not~” She said in delight. Finn snorted for emphasis.

“What are you even doing here still?” He said leering at her.

“Oh You know.”

“Augh,” He said and put his head down.

“Excuse me Finn,” Vidya said to him, getting up to go bother the Prince of Magpies. She slid into his booth with a huge sharp smile and said, “So. Tell me why you a mans now.”

“No.”

“You are no fun. I’ll tell you how we exploded my Ex husband.”

“No thank you. We were friends you know- before.”

“Oh right. Yeah. The whole favor thing.”

He groaned. That favor was why Vidya was now the Queen of cats and here and harassing him. Just like how Cathal being terrible was also his own fault now that he could see the linear logic of it all.

Vidya leaned over and pulled a single hair out of his head and made him yelp and come up swinging. She laughed and ducked low in her seat.

“Oh. look at you. Man shaped. Punchy. Wow.”

Finn, who had been busy moving food he liked from Vidya’s plate to his own in exchange for food he didn’t like, paused to look very threateningly at Tuesday from across the room.

Tuesday looked ready to fight until he caught Finn’s gaze. At which point he staid very straight and proper and frowned at him and then Vidya.

“You’re a bully.”

She smiled.

“Maybe so. Who beat you up. Maybe I can bully them, they might be more sporting.”

“....”

“Who put you on your ass Tuesday, I’m dying to know.”

“Just...some...ratlings.”

Vidya started laughing again.

“Hey hey listen their were like fifteen of them and they- they put me in a barrel!”

“Oh I see. That certainly puts things in your favor.”

“And they rolled me into the river!” he said motioning to the floor in an angry gesture. “What am I to do with Xanth’s stupid mousemans in my kingdom?!”

“...Baby boy baby,” Vidya purred, “Is it your kingdom?”

Tuesday frowned more pathetically than ever and she reached over and gave his hand an insincere there there gesture.

Finn had mostly stopped glaring at him and started eating instead.

“Oh poor little magpie.”

Complex emotions didn’t Suit Tuesday but he was certainly having one and none of them were positive.

“Ah. no fun. Fine. Sulk. See if I care,” She said, patted the table between them and left to return to her own table. Seeing Finn eating made her want to eat, before he ate all the good bits.
And she was displeased to see that he had already pulled his usual stunt with her plate in her absence.

“No, no you have to take this broccoli back, this is a war crime,” She complained trying to shovel some of it back.

Finn shook his head around a mouthful of potato and tried to move it all back. If she had wanted to keep her plate she should have taken it with her.

She kicked him under the table and stole a bite of his laundered potatoes. Finn yelped, because there was not a lot of meat on his terrible chicken legs to absorb the blow.

Vidya sat back with a large glob of potato on fork in victory, still looking as pleased with herself as she had started when they sat down for dinner.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

By the time they had all eaten and spent some time visiting, Nicola had been tired enough to doze off right at the kitchen table. So the sisters took their leave of the others at the wizard’s tower, thanking Cathal for the food and Nicola promising she’d probably be back tomorrow to work on Finn’s curses.

The two walked back to the Silver Prawn mostly in companionable silence. It was a beautiful night in Port of Pearls, and though she was dying to tease Nicola about Jackie laying one on her, Molly was sympathetic to how the day’s excitement had worn her sister out. They were discussing very good cooking- Nicola had eaten some super fancy meals in some extra fancy places, but they were in agreement that Cathal’s soda bread topped most everything- as they came in the inn’s door, and when Molly noticed Tuesday at a table off in the corner, the joy on her face doubled.

“Tuesday!” she called, about to approach when Nicola caught her arm. Molly met her sister’s eyes with an unspoken question, but Nicola nodded grimly at the fae prince. “Look,” she murmured.

What Molly had subconsciously written off as a shadow on one side of Tuesday’s face didn’t fade when he looked up at her; in fact, it grew even more pronounced. More details became apparent: an entire arm was gone off her sweater, and though he’d dried off somewhat since returning to the inn she could still tell he’d been dunked again. Molly drew in a sharp, sudden breath: not quite a gasp but a painful sound like she’d been cut or burned as she rushed across the room.

“Oh gods, Tuesday love,” she said softly, pausing just long enough to pull her guitar case off and set it on the floor before clambering into the booth with him. Gently she took his face in her hands, her fingers cool on his skin, as she examined the black eye. “What happened to you? Who did this?”

Nicola had followed, not entirely unsympathetic- seriously, he looked rough- but this guy’s reputation preceded him. “Did you piss off that enormous lesbian again?”

Molly glared at her. “Nic,” she said plaintively.

Her sister shrugged. “It’s a valid question.” Molly tsked and shook her head.

 

[CelticSol]

Jacqueline "Jackie" Sapienti​

Having regained use of her hands, they had clearly been put to good use, and she demonstrated this by stumbling into the Silver Prawn with a cigarette in one hand, and a beer bottle in the other. Jackie sees the crew, crowing utter gibberish their way as she meanders her way over to the group. "Bonjourno, bitches!!!" She calls, plunking herself down at Nicola's side with absolutely no regard for personal space, taking a decadent puff of her cigarette and washing despite the glare she gets from the bar keep. Looking to Tuesday, she smiles, lays her hand over his, and says, "You must be the bird. Bird Man. Man-bird? Man-ified bird? Anyway, you look like shit. Who cleaned your clock, hombre?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Nicola​

Nicola made a show of waving cigarette smoke out of her face in an attempt to hide the rosiness in her cheeks from Jackie’s presence. “Hey, Jackie. If we’d have known you were coming back here too, we’d have walked back with you.”

However as she said that she made eye contact with her sister, who gave her a pained look. Catching her drift, Nicola slipped an arm around Jackie and started attempting to pull her to her feet. “Yes, he’s the bird man and oh look, Finn and Vidya are here. Come on, gorgeous, let’s go say hi.”

Largely through force of willpower, she manhandled/sweet-talked Jackie back across the tavern, where their friends had been watching all this with distinctly mean girl expressions. Plonking down next to Jackie, she tried to grin sheepishly at them, but it was more of a wince. “Well, I’m an asshole who completely forgot I told you guys to meet us back here! I’m so fucking sorry. But look!” She gestured at Jackie. “Jackie’s totally corporeal again! So… that’s a semi-decent excuse, right?”

 

[Nimbus]

Apollo

"I believe it was some type of pine? I saw it from a bit of a distance. It is very large," Apollo answered, stretching out his full armspan.

"So, there is enough wood, if it is the sort of wood...which one boatbuilds with. I think."

He felt quite like he should have taken notes on the tree. At least he'd be able to find it again if he needed to. Probably.

 

[CelticSol]

Lockette Kenway​

She blinks, eyelids sliding dryly against her glass eyes in a way that only increased her agitation, wondering how in the everloving Hell that this was a conversation she was having through her door.

Regardless of her confusion and bewilderment, she remains even and polite, distinctly aware of Riley at her back and that Quill stands behind this stranger, and Lockette admittedly doesn't want to leave a poor impression on either person, "Depends on the type of pine, and it depends on what kind of vessel you need to craft. Some pine are excellent for boat-building, others are prone to quickly rotting when exposed to water, the latter of which is fine for a boat you intend to use for recreational fishing, but not so great if you plan on daring the open ocean. If you want the tree, go ahead, but just be sure it doesn't belong to dead dryad - her sisters will be vengeful if you take it without paying due respect. Is there something you need from me?"

Jacqueline "Jackie" Sapienti
​

"Oh, flattery will get you everywhere, babe," Jackie chuckles, allowing Nicola to manhandle her to the table, and Jackie can't keep the stupid smug grin off her face the whole time. Her face is flushed already - pale skin is not great when mixed with booze - and the lovely warm firepit in her stomach makes her feel loose and calm and bold, bleeding away residual stress about her once missing hands. She sits next to Nicola, squished so close that their knees brush together. She notices Nicola's distaste about the cigarette, and so Jackie takes a long, hard pull, until the ashes burn to the filter and she extinguishes the cigarette on the floor, and blows a cloud in the opposite direction.

She tucks the stub into her pocket, not one to leave her garbage laying around, and she leans even closer to Nicola, smelling of tobacco and cloves, ducking her head into Nicola's neck and idly using her newly tangible hand to twirl a strand of Nicola's hair around her finger, "I wish you were nicer about the way you talked about yourself," Jackie muses, mostly to herself, and then says, not moving in the slightest from her position to acknowledge Vidya and Finn, "She potion-ed me into a real person. God bless."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Nicola​

Jackie was careful to turn away to put her cigarette out, which didn’t go unnoticed. Nicola took a breath to say something- that she didn’t have to do that, that really she didn’t mind (although admitting the hand-waving was just to hide her blushing would be too embarrassing)- but that’s when Jackie nuzzled up to her and started playing with her hair, and every single hair on Nicola’s body stood on end.

It had been… a long time since Nicola had been this close to somebody. Much less a girl. Much less a girl she liked as much as Jackie. And it was very nice. “I’ll take that under consideration,” she squeaked.

Several emotions passed over Nicola’s face on hearing how her voice had come out. Now she did force herself to breathe deeply, settling some of the goosebumps that had risen at such intimacy. “Well, lots of people helped,” she said once she could speak more normally. “I never could’ve done it without Tom- well, what pre-Peaches Tom left behind, anyway. And the lovely tea shop owner, and my sister helped a bit, and… hm, I guess that faerie saved my bacon, too.”

Remembering this, the weight of the day’s adventures fell back on her. Exhausted, Nicola relaxed into Jackie’s embrace. “It was a team effort. Woohoo.” She waved one finger in the air unenthusiastically. “More good news is: Finn, I have some small leads on how to break some of your curses, too. It’s probably not going to be as easy as it was for Jackie, though. I can tell you about it in the morning if you want.”

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Finn had mostly not been paying attention to Jackie and Nicola, so he looked up with a mouthful of food and blinked at Nicola when he was addressed directly. The morning? Why was she planning on waiting for the morning? He swallowed and set his fork down, and then raised an eyebrow and made his best "Go on," gesture with his hand at her.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Nicola​

“I mean, or now,” she replied, inferring from the gesture what he meant. “I dunno, man, I’m tired. Okay.” Nicola pulled her bag into her lap, retrieving her journal and flipping to the notes from today.

“So the best way to fix your feet is actually to get another faerie to undo it. I guess they love turning people into animals so much, it’s just easier to get one of them to change a person back,” she explained. “And by ‘easier’ I mean, easier for them to do that, magically speaking. Convincing a faerie to help, on the other hand, not so easy.” She turned to Vidya. “I don’t suppose that’s something you could do, Your Majesty? Because unfortunately it’s not like I know any other fae in the… area…”

Nicola frowned, thinking. Except I actually kind of do now, she said to herself, recalling her earlier encounter with the Duke of Foxes. That… could maybe work, actually. If it doesn’t get me into even more trouble first, of course. But… An eyebrow arched appraisingly, Nicola looked the Queen of Cats up and down. A possibly crazy idea was starting to flower in her mind, which depending on how Vidya answered… Ok, sticking that one in the back pocket, then.

“Uhh, anyway. Thoughts on the rooster feet?”

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Finn frowned at Nicola. He supposed, from her point of view, that it was the most obvious of his problems to start fixing. But honestly, it was the least inconvenient of the three. He leaned back in his chair and patted his pockets until he found the pen and scrap paper he'd tucked in there.

I'd rather try and get my arm back, honestly. The feet are fine.

It wasn't ideal, certainly, but they weren't part of the problem of not being able to communicate well, or hold more than one thing at a time, or really anything he was keen to complain on.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Nicola​

For some reason it surprised her that he had a pen and paper with him. Watching him write, she mused it was probably because as it was, Finn already expressed most of his thoughts through facial expressions. Which meant losing his voice hadn't made that big a difference. I suppose something more in-depth was bound to come up eventually, of course.

Finn slid the paper to her.

"...Oh." Reading his words, her heart sank. "Yeah, that's kind of important." She read it again a few times, then passed the paper back.

"I… am so sorry, Finn." Nicola squeezed her eyes closed, guilt washing over her. "Um. I actually already know how to reattach your arm. Matter of fact, it's really quite a simple spell. The problem is…" Glancing up, she spread her hands the way she often did when casting a spell. But of course, nothing happened. "...No magic."

Sighing, Nicola ran a hand through her hair. When she dropped her hand back into her lap, half her fringe was mussed and sticking up comically. "Seriously, it's not that difficult. But somehow none of the healers around here can do it," she grumbled. "And I don't- I honestly don't know how to begin fixing that otherwise." She slumped against Jackie. "At this point it would almost be easier to just teach one of them how to do it…"

A beat passed, and then she jolted upright again. "Or Tom! I'll teach Tom. That could maybe probably work." Mentally Nicola ran through the spell: she'd have to give it some thought in order to explain it so it would it make sense to a novice. But he'd been a powerful enough wizard before losing his memory, he'd likely pick it up easily enough... I hope.

A slightly maniacal chuckle escaped her. "Oh boy. Does this mean Tom's officially like, my apprentice now? I've never had an apprentice before." She did not mention that this was because she'd refused to take one on. "Ooh, this could be fun. Hey." Nicola turned to look at Jackie. "Speaking of your other half, where is he? Did you really leave him alone in the tower with Cathal? He can't even look at the man."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Finn smiled at the irony as Nicola explained how she couldn't magic his arm back. What a mess Xanth had left for him. Vidya really did have the worst taste in men. Fae. Whatever.

He gave her a little shrug as she worked out a solution, as she was wont to do, and scribbled take your time on the paper. It wasn't like he had anything more pressing than helping Vidya look for that bastard salamander, and he could do that just as well with one hand and chicken feet and no voice.

 

[Nimbus]

Apollo

Pol's face fell...and then blanched. He was way out of his depth with this shipbuilding notion. Adding mystical beings into the midst of it certainly threw a wrench in the works.

The young merchant fidgeted with his hair and answered, "I think I can bring you a sample of the tree, but there's the matter of this dead...dryad? I don't know her? Or her sisters? How do I figure out if the tree is hers? And what do you reccomend for, ah, honoring such a noble spirit?"

 

[CelticSol]

Lockette Kenway ​

As he goes into another line of questioning, her thin patience tested until it snapped. She knows Quill will likely sword fight her later or some shit for it, but Lockette can't even help it - she groans in frustration, and it devolves into completely exasperated laughter, "Do you regularly do this? Just show up to a stranger's house unannounced and ask eight hundred fucking questions? Why all the questions? Do I look like a Goddess-damned library to you? I told you that you could have the tree. Whatever happens from there is none of my business and I am not going to direct you in how to deal with dryads because I have no idea. Unless there is something specific that you came here for, I've got shit that I need to do."

Jacqueline "Jackie" Sapienti​

Jackie does nothing helpful as Nicola discusses trying to fix Finn's horrible rooster feet, which are the most cursed bullshit feet she's ever seen. She can understand wanting to have two hands, but... existing with rooster feet? Nightmarish. She can't imagine what is happening in Finn's head for having rooster feet for longer than he needs to being the better option.

Suddenly, Nicola is speaking to her. It takes her a solid 10 seconds to register any meaning to the words Nicola says, her mind swimming because she is so drunk and Nicola is comfortable and warm and Jackie is so fucking touch starved it's fucking embarrassing, until she finally locks in on what Nicola asked her. She snickers at 'other half', but doesn't deny it's truth, and slurs, "Oh, yeah, I fuckin' left him there. He doesn't banter with me any more. Plus, I was hoping for like one of those... I dunno. Some sort of magical romance novel moment. Maybe nothing happens. Maybe they talk. Maybe they have yearning eye contact and realize they're in love or some shit. Maybe they'll have reconciliation sex on the couch. Who knows." Jackie is quiet for a second, then asks, entirely too seriously, "You know magical shit, right? You think it's possible to fuck the memory back into someone?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Nicola​

Jackie was so lost in the sauce it took a long pause for her to register that Nicola had asked her a (semi-)serious question. “Aww, I’m sorry,” Nicola replied to her gripe about bantering with Tom.

It came out more mocking than she intended, unable to mask the amusement in her voice as she was. Nicola had actually found the honesty (yes, even when he was trying to lie) in the way Tom had been acting since he lost his memory to be refreshing. I’m probably the only one, though. Jackie was hurting over the apparent loss of her best friend, and Nicola had meant it with genuine sympathy. She squeezed her hand.

The moment passed as Jackie’s confession that she’d hoped leaving Tom and Cathal alone would inspire some kind of reconnection between them slightly scandalized Nicola’s courtly sensibilities. “Hell’s bells, Jackie, don’t be so coarse!” she spluttered with a laugh. But as she was wont to do, when asked a question about magic, her brain switched into academic mode. “Although…” She considered it. “I mean, true love’s kiss is old and powerful magic. Who knows?” She shrugged. “I suppose it’s not impossible.”

Her honest opinion was, however: good luck getting Tom within ten feet of that poor, beautiful bard. RIP Cathal.

 

[Nimbus]

Apollo

Pol threw his hands up, exasperated. He was being pleasant and polite and really they did come all the way to her house rather than send a summons. Not that Lockette would probably listen, given her present manner. Did anyone in Port of Pearls even receive summons? Ugh, Provincials.

"In case you weren't aware, there is no library in this backwater. Otherwise, I would be comfortably reading there, not hiking out in a forest where I could ostensibly be kidnapped - or worse - by whatever bogeymen parents in town insist to scare their children with," the conte-apparent huffed, tossing his head like a stallion begrudged to remain in a merely adequate pen.

"If I give you a sample of the tree, can you tell me if it's wood suitable for building an ocean-going vessel? Or, teach me how you can tell, if you 'don't want to be bothered' with an apprentice willing to give you a cut of the profits on the ship's maiden voyage."

 

[CelticSol]

Lockette Kenway​

"Backwater," Lockette echoes in a bone dry drawl, turning her head to face Riley so that Riley can see Lockette's deadpanned expression, then faces the stranger again, "Y'know, I was hearing you out because you're a friend of Quill's, who I hold in pretty high regard. By your voice and the way you choose to speak to someone that, for one, you are demanding help and information from, and second, currently has one hand on a sword, I'm going to guess you were a noble before you came to Royesland, a backwater I happen to enjoy and call home."

"Let me give you a reality check. If you had come to my door with Quill in tow, lead with the fact you were looking for an apprenticeship in building a boat, and politely asked for one? I would've done it as a favour to Quill with no questions asked, without monetary reward for it. But instead, you came to my home as a stranger, completely unannounced, occupied my time by asking a dozen questions without offering any context that you were looking for an apprenticeship or a teacher or whatever, to ask a billion questions about boat building, and when I asked you if there a point to your line of questioning and why you were consulting me, you caught an attitude with me. I can have an attitude with you, just on the basis that you just showed up as a stranger to my home when every person in town knows I like to be left alone, and you're also standing at my front door."

"Every request you've asked of me are things I could do, yes. Keyword: could, not would. Rather than being entitled and rude to me, I think this is the part where you should start to backpedal and give me a reason, any reason, to help you with this, because, Quill or not, I am very close to slamming the door in your face and going back to a quiet evening with my housemate."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Quill

Quill had floated off, not far, just a few steps to admire the flowers planted in front of Lockette's sturdy home. He tried not to smile- he was very fond of Pol, he was beutiful and optimistic, and perhaps he owed him better than letting him come bother Lockette. It was not a plan bound to succeed. But Quill would be lying if he said he did not live for drama. And Lockkette "town hall fountain suplex duke" Kenway was just the sort of person who would and could teach a man humility and respect quick and maybe he thought Pol needed the lessons if they were being given? He pretended not to notice how badly it was going.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday glanced at Jackie as she too wanted to know who had handed him his ass. He tried to think of a lie quick, as Vidya had not made him feel too well about the truth. But Jackie was quickly distracted and he was left with Molly holding his face- which was in fact preventing his brain with coming up with a suitable lie.
"I-" He said hesitantly and then continued softly, "You know. It's a long story and I'm not in the mood..." And he felt horrible for saying it because Molly was looking at him like he cared and complex emotions made his head hurt. "What have you been up to- You look like you staid out of trouble better than I did?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Molly​

There’s something to this whole ‘twin connection’ thing, Molly thought as Nicola took her facial cue to hussle her drunk girlfriend away to another table, ...or maybe it was just obvious. Tuesday had, after all, looked quite pained at Jackie’s questioning (which was saying something, given that he looked pretty pained as it was).

“Oh gosh yeah, sorry. That’s fair, I- I didn’t mean to pry.” Molly suddenly realized how close she’d gotten to Tuesday without even thinking about it. Quickly pulling her hands down, she shuffled away so she was sitting in the booth, rather than kneeling next to him as she’d been before. “Uhh… Well…” By her assessment, Molly technically had stayed out of trouble; it was Nicola who’d made some kind of screwy bargain with a fae lord. But there was still stuff he needed to know about, although it killed her to imagine bringing him even lower by delivering the Duke’s message after someone had already gone to the trouble of kicking his ass today.

“...It’s kind of a funny story,” was what she finally decided on, before scooting out of the booth and getting up. “Which I will definitely tell you all about in just a minute, once I’ve gotten something to put on that eye of yours. ‘Cause you really ought to be getting that swelling down. You know how it is,” she stalled, rubbing at the scar on her chin and avoiding eye contact. “Hey, have you eaten? Maybe you should eat something too.” It wasn’t that Molly was a bad liar, but her news for him wasn’t something to lie about. She could, however, delay sharing for a little longer; just to try to help him feel a bit better first.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

Oh When molly let go of his face and started chattering at him he knew he'd made a mistake but he wasn't sure how. He wasn't sure what he should have said instead of I don't want to talk about it but he hadn't been a man long enough yet to figure it out.

"Food would be amazing- they took everythign in my pockets," He said like it was a totally neutral event. Like he wasn't a Magpie who had been keeping MANY things in his pockets for later, some of which was money.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Molly​

She couldn't help it- when Tuesday confessed he'd been robbed her jaw dropped. If I ever find out who did this they're going to get a piece of my fucking mind, Molly said to herself, and it was probably the closest thing to a violent thought she'd ever had in her life.

"Oh, Goddess," she breathed. "I'm- that's awful. I'm so, so sorry, love. Yeah, we'll get you something to eat, and, uh… just- just wait there, ok?"

So it was that Molly again went to the keeper of the Silver Prawn to get a change of clothes and a hot meal for Tuesday, as well as this time a little bag of frosted peas wrapped in a dish towel for him to hold on his black eye. The innkeeper gave her a kind of pitying look that she resented but had also been expecting, and yet did as she asked without any questions. For someone who never looked after her own well-being she was remarkably stern about bossing Tuesday around. Ordering a cup of tea for herself so she had something to fiddle with, it wasn't long before they'd settled back in the booth, and Molly was again hemming and hawing over what to say.

"Um… well, my day started off pretty nice," she began. "I went for a walk, played my guitar for a little while and worked on a song. Met a nice lady who's fixing up her ancestral home near the woods and chatted a bit with her and her friend." She dared a glance at Tuesday, just in case that meant anything to him. "They told me some legends about local things like a great big pine tree that used to grow in the woods a long time ago, and a lot of birds lived there…"

Molly hadn't planned on going into specifics, but before she could decide not to, she went on, "the woman had an absolutely gorgeous feather on her necklace; looked just like that one you said was yours, that you found in the wizard's tower the other day, actually." And now time for the teacup: she took a sip for bravery before quipping, "what a coincidence, huh?"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal McKay & Thomas Finch
with TrashRabbit​

Long after the Sil sisters and Jackie had left, and after Cathal had cleaned up the kitchen, he climbed up the stairs to his bedroom and found Thomas already there, reading in bed on top of the covers like a man who did not know how to go to sleep properly, which he was.

He looked up as Cathal entered with a confused and expectant look that slowly shifted into horrified understanding.

The big fluffy cat had been sleeping on the other pillow and now it was a man.

“...Ah,” said Cathal, watching Tom’s expression warp rapidly. “Hmm. This is awkward.”

“Yes,” He said without inflection.

Cathal sighed. He wanted very badly to climb into bed and forget about the fact that he had been forgotten, but it seemed cruel to force Thomas to deal with that when brushing hands made him a speechless idiot. “I’ll go see if one of the other rooms is...transversable,” he said, remembering years of bullshit accumulating in them without much hope. He went to their dressers and rifled through the drawers of his for pajamas.

“No it’s okay- I am just...reading-” He said getting up, “So you can do a sleeping.”

“You’re going to sleep eventually, even if it isn’t until four in the morning,” Cathal said.

“But then you’ll be asleep and it won't be awkward-” He said trying to edge his way out of the room.

Cathal watched him scoot towards the door and felt similar levels of love and despair that he had when Tom had fled the kitchen with his empty bowl. “Alright,” he said. “Make sure you put on a light,” he added.

Maybe it was simply that he’d gotten used to sleeping as a cat, but despite the fact of being in his own bed he couldn’t fall asleep, and instead rolled over and over.

Finally, Cathal gave up and made his way back up to the library.

“Thomas?” he asked softly. “Can I come in?”

Tom peeked over the top of his book from where he lay half upside down on the chaise lounge and said, “I guess.”

“I can’t sleep,” Cathal said. He had a quilt from the bed draped over his shoulders like a cape, and he pulled the end dragging on the ground into the library after him before closing the door gently. “Would it bother you if I stayed in here, for a while, and read too?”

He missed Tom too much to want to be in another room.

“If you’d like,” he said, unaware that he was using his ‘where is the catch’ voice he used when speaking with fairies, which was close but not the same as dealing with Karens. Cathal was very aware of this, and frowned slightly, but decided not to address it.

“Thank you,” he said instead, and settled on the floor with a pillow under his chest to read his own book.

After a long while Tom glanced over at him and asked, “Do you know when you’re going to show up in these?” He said gesturing at the journal he was reading.

Cathal looked up and blinked at him--he had been re-reading a rather fat volume of poetry, and it took him a moment for the question to process properly. “Oh, the ones from twenty-ish years ago. So…” he got up and inspected the shelves a moment. “Somewhere in here?” he guessed, running his fingers along a shelf slightly more than halfway through the collection of journals.

“...Cathal, how old am I? That’s like so many journals in.”

“Well, before you came out of the woods, I couldn’t say,” Cathal said. “It’s been about a hundred years since then.”

Tom blinked at him. But like an emphatic blinking that asked many questions. Cathal grinned back at him.

“You were the court magician for the Jarl of Bears, when he was the King of the Fae and the Forest,” Cathal told him. “And when Tuesday took over you left and got an apprenticeship with the old wizard.”

“Oh,” He said. Because his journals started with his apprenticeship, with many references to “The Jarl’s court” or “Before I came Port of pearls”.

“I am not fae am I- it says in here I’m related to the Donovans?” He asked seriously.

“You’re a changeling. So you were a good human boy whisked away and raised by the fae, and there’s also an absolutely terrible fae man named Thomas Donovan who was raised in your place in town. Arune, the old wizard, ran him out before you came out of the forest.”

“O-oh,” He said in alarm.

“It’s fine, it was a hundred years ago,” Cathal said, waving an arm dismissively. “I mean, there are stories, of course, but nobody knows he was your changeling.”

“Well- you do,” He said peevishly, “Is he still...around? Should I be? Concerned??”

“I only know because you told me,” Cathal said. “And nobody’s seen him in a very long time. He didn’t go back to the forest. Probably he’s in some other town far away causing them grief instead, I suppose.”

He frowned, that spectacular muppet frown, and said, “I see.”

“Oh, don’t frown at me like that,” Cathal told him. “You’ve plenty of other fairies to trouble you, without willing that one back.”

“Fine fine....But I thought this town was supposed to be sleepy and backwaters, this is...so much excitement,” He said flipping ahead a few more pages to make a point.

“It’s sleepy and backwater to anyone who doesn’t live here, because you take care of things in a prompt and tidy way,” Cathal said.

“No pressure,” He said with a huff.

Cathal sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that. Just. We’re clever and competent and you’re still clever and competent, and that’s always been enough.”

Tom kept his doubts to himself and put his nose back in his journal.

“You’ll see, you grumpy old thing,” Cathal told him, turning back to the row of journals and examining the dates more closely.

“Do you know what happened with the Jarl of bears?” He asked, casually as if the question wasn’t killing him, from behind the hard cover of his book.

“Well, I wasn’t there myself,” Cathal said, looking back, “But I do, yes.”

“....” Tom paused, because of course this beautiful man wasn’t just going to tell him, “Am I allowed to know?”

“I suppose you could be,” Cathal said, trying not to grin obnoxiously. He went to one of the other chairs in the room and moved it just a little, so that it faced Thomas’ more comfortably, and curled up in it. “Well. A long, long, long time ago it was, and the Jarl of Bears was the King of the Fae and the Forest, and he found himself in need of a wife,” Cathal began.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday

Tuesday, thankful to be fed and chattered at, nodded dutiful as he at and Molly recounted her story. But he stopped short with his spoon in his mouth when she mentioned the Donovan home, and the pine, and his eyes grew big when she mentioned the feather.
"Was she...about my height- Gold hair, litlte scar over her lip?" He asked pointing to the corn of his own lips with his spoon. What Truffle wasa doing tryign to rebuild that old ruin with that Kenway was beyond him. He had been waiting for some hint of her to show up in town and she was too busy seducing Lockette? Not that he wasn't aware of his left hands interest on the town's new arrival- but he had rather lost his after being suplexed into a fountain. Today could not get much worse. At least Cathal was not here, physically, gloating. Small miracles.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Molly​

Tuesday started out with the neutral listening face she’s noticed he does when she starts in on a tangent, but as she described her meeting with Riley and Lockette he became not just attentive but surprised. Hope fluttered in her chest. Maybe I did do something useful, after all.

“Y-yes! Yeah, that’s Riley.” She sat up a little straighter. “She didn’t… she didn’t say what her last name was, but Lockette mentioned a Donovan family?” Molly realized she had been trying not to mention that the ‘friend’ was Lockette, but. Too late now.